Global News Podcast - Gaza fears as Israel bans UN Palestinian refugee agency

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

The Israeli Parliament votes to ban the Palestinian refugee agency, UNWRA. Also: the world’s trees under threat, the Spanish midfielder, Rodri, wins the Ballon d’Or, and a new Chopin waltz sees the light of day.

Hello, this is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from History to Comedy to True Crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership.

Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts. main stories. The Knesset has voted to ban Anwar, the UN agency working with Palestinian refugees. Tens of thousands of Georgians have demonstrated against the electoral victory claimed by the ruling party. The Spain and Manchester city midfielder, Rodri, has been named the best football player in the world. Also in this podcast, a warning that more than a third of the world's species of trees are facing extinction. A new Chopin wall sees the light of day 175 years after the composer died and... The one thing we would have bet thousands of dollars on was him not showing up.

We could not think of a more unsafe place for Timothee Chalamet to be on Sunday at 1 p.m. a more unsafe place for Timothee Chalamet to be on Sunday at 1pm. A Hollywood superstar surprises contestants at his own look-alike competition. For almost a year, Israel and ANWA, the UN agency which has been helping Palestinians for 75 years, have been at loggerheads. Israel has claimed that Anwar is the civilian arm of Hamas which the UN denies. On Monday the Israeli Parliament passed a law banning Anwar from working in Israel. The UN and Western countries for this would make it even harder to get aid into Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Matthew Miller, a US State Department spokesman, said the decision is deeply concerning. Anwar plays a US State Department spokesman, said the decision is deeply concerning.

Unreplace a critical, important role in delivering humanitarian assistance to civilians that need it in Gaza. It's not the only role they play. They play an important role providing services to Palestinians in the West Bank and throughout the region as well. But they really play an irreplaceable role right now in Gaza, where they are on the front lines getting humanitarian assistance to the people they need it there's nobody that can replace them right now in the middle of the crisis. UNRWA's boss, Philippe Lazzarini, said that Israel's move would only

increase the suffering of Palestinian civilians. Our Middle East correspondent Sebastian Asher is in Jerusalem and asked him what's led Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make this decision. Well there's been a long-term feeling amongst many Israeli politicians that the UN and UNRWA are essentially hostile to Israel, they're biased against Israel and that has really hardened since the October the 7th attacks, there have been allegations from Israel that essentially UNRWA is complicit with Hamas and there were allegations, accusations that 12 members of UNRWA took part in the October 7th attacks. That was investigated and it was found that there was

some evidence that nine of them may have been, but the major kind of allegations against UNRWA, the kind of institution-wide ones were not stood up. But you know, this is the feeling and it was shown by the fact that these two bills passed very easily without any real dissent. I mean, it won't affect in some degree the actual workers inside Gaza, the Palestinians there and in the occupied West Bank. I mean, its real problem for UNRWA and for getting aid and supplies into Gaza is that a second bill

that was passed made it illegal for state authorities to deal with UNRWA, which means the negotiations that need to take place really between the IDF, between other Israeli institutions and aid agencies about how they will get supplies in, how their staff will get in, what kind of support there can be, is essentially at an end. So where that leaves UNRWA and its ability to continue providing the support is a very, very big question. Now, Mr Netanyahu didn't say that all the services that UNRWA does for the Palestinians should come to an end, but that other institutions, other organisations should be providing them. Now, the counter argument to that was that in the situation in Gaza with the conflict going with a war happening, it's essentially impossible to

get any other institutions, any other organizations on any kind of level like UNRWA in place to be able to do what UNRWA does and it will have an effect on the humanitarian situation in Gaza and in the occupied West Bank. And will this happen immediately? I mean, what about women, children, civilians who depend on aid coming in? This won't happen immediately, no. It's going to come in force in three months. But obviously that is a short time when you look at the situation in Gaza and that there seems little end to the fighting there. The situation, particularly in northern Gaza, has become particularly desperate and difficult in the past few weeks as Israel has mounted a big new offensive to try to stop Hamas

fighters regrouping there. That's led to supplies not being able to get into the area, to many more Palestinians again being displaced, to hospitals that are just about still functioning, finding it even harder to do so. And the absolutely essential support that UNRWA has been providing, that, as I say, will become more and more difficult. Sebastian Usher in Jerusalem. And next, to Tbilisi. We're tens of thousands have held a rally outside Georgia's parliament building to protest the disputed results of Saturday's election. The ruling Georgia Dream Party was returned to power in what they call a landslide victory,

winning 54% of the vote. But the four pro-Western opposition parties have rejected the results, reporting instances of vote-rigging and alleged interference by Russia. The BBC's Russia editor Steve Rosenberg spoke to President Salome Sirabeshvili, who said the results were a total falsification. It's a call to our partners to see and understand what is happening here. I think it's up to the Georgian population to say where it stands. There can be international review of some of the elements of the election. There can be a call for new elections in what period of time, I don't know.

That will depend on the Georgian people and on the political parties. My call was to have a demonstration of where does the Georgian population stand, and I think we're going to see it tonight. How concerned are you that this confrontation could end in violence? No, it's not a confrontation. People are going to come out just to demonstrate that they have a right to express their votes and to have their votes and their future defended. But it's not designed as a confrontation. It's going to be very peaceful. If you have

seen the way the Georgian population demonstrates, it's always very peaceful. And I don't think that the authorities will want to turn that into a confrontation. The European Union has accused Georgia of democratic backsliding and has frozen the country's bid to join the EU. It's also backed US calls for an independent investigation into the results. I heard more from our correspondent Rehan Dimitri, who was at the demonstrations in Tbilisi. There were thousands of people, there were opposition leaders and the country's president, she saying that look, you didn't lose this election, your voices, your votes were stolen. And she pledged to stand with the people until they achieve their goal, which is for new

elections. At the same time, we know that two out of four opposition coalitions that made it past the 5% threshold in the Saturday's vote, they have already refused to take the parliamentary mandates and we have the reaction from the country's Prime Minister who said that whether with or without the opposition the new parliament will convene in about a month's time and it will be back to business, so to say. And what people are protesting about is election interference, isn't it? What evidence is there

of that? Well, we've heard several reports from quite well organized local coalition of observers and they deployed 2,000 observers to monitor the elections throughout the day listing number of violations such as intimidation of voters, particularly those who are from the public sector that they were under pressure to vote in favor of the governing Georgian Dream Party or risk losing their jobs. And biggest concern for the opposition and local observers is

what they said was a kind of specially conducted scheme to take a people's ID cards and somehow use those IDs to vote in favor of the Georgian Dream government. Well, the government also commented on it and they said they absolutely refused to acknowledge that there was widespread violations during the vote and they said yes there were a few instances but the vote was largely conducted in a free environment and it was up to international standards. Now the EU has frozen the country's bid to join it. Where does this leave Georgia's hopes of joining the

European Union do you think? Those who came out today, the young people who were draped in the EU and Georgian flags, to be honest, they were talking less about stolen elections, but again, they were talking that they are against this government, which they believe has not done enough to take this country closer to Europe in that time that they've been governing Georgia, but have moved the country in the opposite direction. Rehan Demetri in Georgia. Scientists assessing dangers posed to the world's trees have found that more than a

third of all species are facing extinction. The research was released at the UN Biodiversity Summit COP16 in Cali in Colombia, where world leaders are meeting to discuss progress on a global rescue plan for nature. Emily Beech is from the Global Tree Assessment Project, which contributed to the study. We've focused a lot on the mammals and amphibians and the cute things, but less so on the tree species that are holding all the habitats together. So there are actually more tree species threatened than there are threatened birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians combined. The main threats to tree species worldwide are agriculture, expansion and logging. Then you've got some regional variations

in temperate regions, pests and diseases are a big issue. So your ash dieback or your emerald ash borer. And then looking at tropical islands as another example, we're really seeing the emergence of climate change in terms of increased tropical storms having an impact on tree species already. I think the strength of this project is that we looked at every single individual tree species and assessed its conservation status. So there's about 57,000 different types of tree in the world and we looked at all of them individually with the help of a thousand tree experts from all over the world. And now we can say the sort of big headline figures like 38% of trees are threatened with extinction, but we can also say what the problem is and

where for each individual tree species. So that means we can take the correct and informed conservation action decisions to make sure that we don't lose any of these species. Emily Beech, now have you got a celebrity doppelganger? On Sunday in New York City there was a look-alike competition for the Hollywood heartthrob, Timothy Chalamet. The prize? Fifty dollars. People were stunned to find that Chalamet himself turned up to the event unannounced. Anthony Poe, a YouTuber, organised the competition and Amber Alexander, also a YouTuber, was one of the judges. Anthony first told Mark Lewin why he had set this all up. I love doing things for the city, like wholesome fun events that the North Star for them is like,

you know, stories you can talk about in a bar or, you know, if you have grandkids telling your grandkids, oh I did this one day. And that's kind of how we came up with the idea we thought it'd be funny and didn't think it would pick up as much traction as it did. And Amber you were one of the judges what did you make of the of the attempts of the of the many people who turned up? I think it was mind-blowing it was great to see so many people in the community show out and to see how many people there are in New York that look like Timothee Chalamet.

I know also there were a handful of people that flew in from out of state or even out of the country. So I think it was a phenomenal day for all New Yorkers to witness. One fan I was reading said that to look like Timothee Chalamet, it's all in the nose. Is that the kind of defining factor for you in judging? I think what I was really looking for was his jawline and bone structure. I think that's

one of Timothy's strongest traits. I do also think obviously his nose is pretty key to his look as well. But I think it was really just the facial harmony and matching Timothy's facial shape. Anthony, when you were organising it, did you expect the man himself to turn up? The one thing we would have bet thousands of dollars on was him not showing up. Like, we could not think of a more unsafe place for Timothee Chalamet to be on Sunday at 1 p.m. Like, I mean, I guess everyone's a really big fan, so no one's going to try to hurt him, but there's so many people there for him, so... What did you make of when the police turned up? Because I gather that

they kind of clamped down on what they had was an unauthorized event and even led somebody away in handcuffs. Yeah, it was crazy. It's a bit frustrating that they tried to clamp down. I mean, the event would have happened with or without us. And when there's a will, there's a way. And we got it done and it turned out good. Amber, what about the guy who won? Tell us about him and whether you judged him to be the winner. I believe his name is Miles Mitchell. He's from Staten Island, so he's a New Yorker himself. He was my personal favorite Timothee Chalamet look-alike.

I was rooting for him from the beginning. I think he pulled up in the costume and really put his effort in. But on top of that, he also just had the face of Timothee Chalamet, in my opinion. So I was really happy that he won. Amber Alexander and before that, Anthony Poe. And they were both talking to Mark Lone. Still to come a voice from the past resurfaces thanks to the wonders of artificial intelligence. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts

like Global News, Americast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts. 2024's Ballon d'Or, widely regarded as football's most prestigious prize, has been awarded to the Spanish defensive midfielder Rodri, who plays for the English Premier League champions Manchester City. Controversy surrounded the ceremony in Paris before it even began, with Real Madrid boycotting the event after reports that their star player, Vinicius Junior, wouldn't

be awarded Player of the Year. That decision backfired when the Spanish club won Best Team trophy and no one was there to collect it. So, was Rodri's success a big surprise? I asked our sports correspondent, Manny Jasmi. Huge surprise. Twelve hours ago he was a distant second favourite. Just making up the numbers, really. Vinicius was widely expected to win it until we heard these rumours that culminated in Real Madrid not turning up. But let's talk about Rodri rather than Real Madrid because they haven't covered themselves in any glory. He was instrumental in Manchester

City winning the Premier League for a fourth time in a row last season and Spain winning the European Championship. He's the first man from Spain to win the Ballon d'Or since 1960 and he's the first man to win the award while playing for a club other than Real Madrid or Barcelona since 2004. Well you said don't mention Real Madrid but it was embarrassing that no one was there to pick up the best team trophy. Even the media in Spain who are most sympathetic towards the club have roundly criticized them. Marca, the Spanish newspaper said that it was a tantrum of Real Madrid not to turn up. They had a delegation of 50 players and staff all set to go, but then they cancelled their chartered flight

in the afternoon and sent everyone home. They studiously refused to acknowledge the ceremony in any of their social media posts on Monday. It was a real shame because, as you say, they won the Team of the Year award and their coach Carlo Ancelotti, who's one of the elder statesmen of football, carries himself with so much dignity. He won the Coach of the Year award but he couldn't pick that up. Instead he did send a post on X thanking the club, his family and above all he said Vinny referring to Vinicius and Carvajal referring to Dani Carvajal whom Real Madrid thought should have won the Ballon d'Or if Vinicius didn't. In the end neither of them did and he went to Rosry.

Manny Jasmine. Sir Michael Parkinson was a British TV legend. For decades the country's preeminent chat show host. He died last year but his voice has now been recreated using artificial intelligence to host a new interview podcast series. His son, Mike Parkinson, said he wanted listeners to be able to tell that it was AI interacting with the string of guests on the podcast. Chris Vallance has been finding out about this AI impersonation of the man known affectionately as Parky and what that might mean for broadcast interviewers around the world. So Michael Parkinson was an interviewer who could make even Muhammad Ali drop his guard. He died last year. This morning on Today, he was back on air.

This is Michael Parkinson, or at least a version of me in this rather curious AI form. Not him of course, but an AI. It is I think extraordinary what they've achieved because I didn't really think it was going to be as accurate as that. That's his son Mike who backs a new venture that will see AI Parky interview live guests for a new podcast. But should this send a cold shiver down the spine of human presenters in the inquisitorial hot seat? Jamie Anderson is from production company Deep Fusion. The AI Michael is not replacing a presenter. It is a new podcast where Sir Michael's legacy has continued.

So it's not taking away a presenter's job. But the quality and possibly cheapness of AI generated hosts is encouraging experimentation. Last week a radio station in Krakow, Poland caused uproar after replacing its presenters with three AI avatars in a move designed to appeal to young audiences. Does it matter if the morning show presenter is a data center somewhere in Silicon Valley? Well, in the end, that's a question audiences will answer. Scary stuff, that was Chris Valance. And now to Germany. And sounds from Saxony in the east as workers at the Volkswagen factory in Zwickau gathered to protest at

plans to restructure the company. Thousands of people also gathered at the carmaker's headquarters in Wolfsburg. The company has announced that it will close at least three factories in Germany and lay off tens of thousands of staff. One of the workers gave his reaction to the news. It's dramatic. And I believe that anyone who hasn't yet understood what it's all about should really wake up now. This is about all of our livelihoods for the future, about the suppliers. This is about every small baker here at this location. I have to say, I'm really a bit scared.

Our business correspondent Theo Leggett told us about the problems Volkswagen has been facing. Germany's factories are quite high cost to run and at the moment they're not used enough. Since the Covid pandemic sales have not fully recovered so the factories are not busy enough. They're quite high cost because energy costs and labour costs in Germany are high and at the same time the company as a whole and indeed all of the German car industry is facing competition, principally competition from China and Chinese firms have invested heavily in electric cars, they've built up their domestic industry and now they're moving into foreign markets including Europe. So on its own doorstep Volkswagen is facing competition. At the same time, Volkswagen has made a lot of money in recent years selling high value cars on the Chinese market.

But the Chinese market is also suffering at the moment because of the slowing economy there. So Volkswagen is being squeezed on two fronts. How difficult will it be for Volkswagen to push this through without political pushback? It will be extremely difficult. You have to remember that since the war Volkswagen is one of those big German companies that has been run on a consensual basis where unions and management work hand in hand to decide what's best for the company. The supervisory board of Volkswagen is made up of 50% union representatives. So getting decisions through that are not in the workers' interest will be difficult.

On top of that, a large number of Volkswagen's plants are based in the state of Lower Saxony. Volkswagen's hub is in Wolfsburg in Lower Saxony, and the government of Lower Saxony, the state government, has a 20% voting share in Volkswagen. So if you're trying to make the kind of decisions that some would argue need to be made in terms of slashing costs, which means reducing salaries, reducing plants, all that kind of thing, there's likely to be a lot of pushback, first of all from the workers, but also from the politicians. I would see this three plant closures potentially and tens of thousands of jobs to go as something that's going to be very difficult to push through.

So Volkswagen in big trouble. Will other car manufacturers follow suit do you think? Well they're all under pressure and there have been profit warnings from Mercedes-Benz and BMW in recent weeks as well and they're under pressure from the same for the same reasons. And it's not just the competition from China or the falling sales in China, of course. These are companies which are having to invest in developing electric cars. That's under pressure from regulators who want to phase out conventional petrol and diesel cars. And don't forget that Germany was the hub of the dieselgate scandal back in 2015.

But at the moment they're struggling to sell electric cars. In Germany there's been a double-digit fall in electric car sales over the past year and that's partly because incentives have been removed and electric cars are more expensive and you could expect prices to come down over time. But immediately right now they are struggling to, right now, they are struggling to sell these cars which they are having to build. Theo Leggett. Across the Atlantic, American workers too, just like their German counterparts, are watching

the long, slow decline of traditional industries, just as they prepare to vote in a new president. Much of Donald Trump's dystopian vision of a doom-decaying America revolves around apocalyptic images of industrial decline, of shuttered steel mills, car factories and coal mines. With the clock ticking down to next week's election, the future of steel in particular could play a role in deciding who wins the key swing state of Pennsylvania. From its once great industrial center of Pittsburgh, Monica Miller reports. It's a rainy Sunday afternoon at City Works Eatery in Poorhouse

in downtown Pittsburgh. Sports fans of the home team are watching an away game against the Indiana Colts. John Myhook sips his beer at halftime. So are you from Pittsburgh? I'm originally from Pittsburgh, but I live outside of Washington, D.C. now. He's wearing a black and yellow Steelers jersey. The team was named after the industry that once put Pittsburgh on the map as an industrial

powerhouse. He grew up at the same time the steel industry in towns across the region started to shut down in the 1980s. So my generation, we all pretty much moved out of the Pittsburgh area. Steeler Nation is everywhere. That's Charles McCollister, a retired professor of Industrial and Labor Relations from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. We approximated 200,000 jobs, well-paying union jobs, between Youngstown and Johnstown.

That's why you've got seven stealer bars in Montana. It's because everywhere around the country there are stealer fans and it's the industrial refugees. In the early 20th century, Pittsburgh and the towns in the Mont Valley produced the majority of steel in the market. US Steel Corporation made the metal used to build America's railroads and ships during the Second World War. It was founded by Scotland native Andrew Carnegie and was once the most valuable

company in the world. But by the 1970s and 80s, the industry collapsed. Fast forward to 2024, China is now the world's biggest producer of steel and the U.S. is fourth in line. U.S. is fourth in line. U.S. Steel Corporation ranks 24th internationally. But late last year, Japan's Nippon Steel offered over $14 billion to purchase the American Iconic Company. But it's facing political opposition ahead of the election. U.S. Steel should remain American owned and American operated.

We are also going to keep U.S. Steel right here in America. But leaders from the Mon Valley, like the town of Braddock, say they need this to happen. We've also seen what they've done in West Virginia to the point where they've become a part of the fabric of that community, to the point where they're building baseball fields. They actually said they were going to do something and they did it. They showed a track record. And there's some young people that work there and they're like, I've never thought I would get into steel, but here I am.

Braddock is less than a square mile and today has a little over 1,700 residents. Nipond Steel promises the deal will have a billion dollar impact on the region's economy, create nearly 5,000 construction jobs, and generate $38 million in tax revenue. Professor Charles McCullister says if Nippon Steel follows through on their promises, they can build a new world on the ashes of the old. We need to make things in this country and we better grab it while there's still a connective tissue to that older knowledge base that once was the envy of the world. Professor Charles McCullister ending that report by Monica Miller. the sweet sound of discovery. The lilting dark-cued tones of a Chopin waltz played by the renowned pianist Lang Lang for the New York Times. But extraordinarily, this appears to be a new Chopin waltz, which,

given that the composer died back in 1849, is quite something. It's the first such find for more than 50 years. Robinson McLennan is the man who discovered the composition. He's the curator of the Library and Museum in New York, where the manuscript has just been discovered. He's in no doubt that this is a work by one of the great romantic composers, and he told Tim Franks how he came across it. It's funny because it was in the process of one of the more, I would say, quotidian parts of my job cataloging new collections. The collection came to us a few years ago and the process was a bit delayed by the pandemic. And so I wasn't expecting this, certainly. And when I saw the manuscript,

I suppose my first reaction was one of cautious excitement, thinking this really could be something. I didn't recognize the music. I looked at various other Chopin waltzes, thinking, oh, it must be one of the known waltzes, and that I just haven't happened to have heard and could not find it. And so fairly quickly approached Geoffrey Kalberg, one of the leading Chopin experts, and showed him the manuscript. And he was immediately excited. And then we went from there in the process of authenticating it. Right, so you, and that process, I mean it's not actually signed by Chopin, this manuscript, but so you presumably did the sort of checks that made you

think actually it doesn't just sound like Chopin but it's, you know, pretty recognisably the work of Chopin. Yes, so what we're most certain about actually is that it is written in the hand of Chopin, that it is paper that he wrote on himself in his own hand. What's not entirely sure is that it's music that he composed. I feel about 98% sure, and many people who've heard it already feel in their gut that this sounds like Chopin. Yeah. But there are possibilities. Yeah, and it is short, and it does, from, I mean, I'm speaking in a totally inexpert

way, but it sounds plausibly like Chopin. And I guess the tantalising thing is that we know that he did write quite a few waltzes that have been lost to posterity, haven't they? Indeed, and there are many stories of manuscripts that were seen decades or years ago that have been lost, and so there are many tantalising stories like that. There are atypical aspects of the music, the kind of stormy opening is a little surprising but not entirely out of character and then the melody really to me is where you feel that Chopin quality. Robinson McLennan on a new composition by Frederic Chopin.

And that's it from us for now. But before we go, here's a request from Nick Miles. Hello, I am hosting a special edition of the Global News podcast ahead of the UN's climate change conference, which starts next month. We want you to send in your questions for our experts to answer anything climate related and what the world is doing to try to address the problem. We've already had lots of questions in, some from Brazil about how much pressure companies are under to meet their emissions targets and several of you want to know three simple things we can do to reduce our own carbon footprint. Just send us a voice note with your question to globalpodcasts at bbc.co.uk. Thanks very much. Thanks Nick and if you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it,

send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll. The producer was Mark Duff. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson, until next time, bye bye. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from History to Comedy to True Crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership.

Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts.